Gaming has become a huge deal in Nigeria, with it being one of the largest communities in Africa. With these communities, several games with large followings, have become so competitive that Esports communities have been built around them with cash prices attached to them. Such competitions spam accross the nation and beyond it.
Today we are going to look at ten of the most popular titles in Nigeria with an esports community, in no particular order.
- Call of Duty: Mobile
Arguably one of if not the most played games on mobile. Call of Duty: Mobile is one the most popular title played as esports in the country. Call of Duty: Mobile is a free-to-play shooter game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Activision for Android and iOS. It consist of clans, social groups and discord servers dedicated to playing organising competions and events for it.
- PUBG: MOBILE
The rival of COD mobile, PUBG mobile made it’s mark as one of the biggest game in the mobile space and was one of the biggest games in Nigeria Esports scene. PUBG Mobile is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed by LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, a division of Tencent Games. It is a mobile game adaptation of PUBG.
- FIFA
The most popular sports in the world will obviously have it’s own competitive game. Fifa is one of EA’s best selling games with an average of 0.78 million copies being sold per year. The game is very popular in Nigeria, it is also one of the most competitive games in the country in households, schools, social events and usually has a presence almost every esports event in the country.
- Fortnite
Fortnite is argubly one of the most influential video games today. It is one of the most competitive battle royale games in the world. The game has competitive scene across the world, with price pools in the millions. So obviously it will have it’s own competitive scene here in Nigeria as well. The game is also cross-platform including in mobile which makes it accessible to virtually almost everyone.
- Mortal Kombat
Fighting games is one of the most popular genre in the video game competive scene and Mortal Kombat is one of it’s most popular titles. With it’s huge roster of characters, a brutal play style it gives players different options and approaches to play against their opponents. There is a decent skill gap which makes the game very competitive among players, and rewards those who take time to learn it’s mechanics and strenghts of various characters.
- Pro Evolutional Soccer
Just like EA FIFA, PES is a football based video game with from KONAMI, and unlike FIFA PES can be played for free. It plays similar to FIFA with a little difference in it’s gameplay mechanics. PES and FIFA share a similar audience with little division. Chances are if you play FIFA you are likely to play PES as well. PES also contribute to the competitive stage in video games similar to FIFA.
- Call of Duty
Call of Duty is one of the most popular shooters in the world, selling millions of copies every year and with a large and loyal player base it shows no sign of ever slowing down. It is also no stranger to the competitive scenes as it the call of duty league goes as far back as 2016. In Nigeria the game has a large following, with tournaments being organised locally and across the nation with huge price pools.
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
Counter Strike is one of the earliest competitive shooters in esports. It is known as a tactical shooter which takes away the fast paced playstyle of call of duty and most modern they shooters, and slows it down to a more precise and strategic play style that not only allows players to out aim their opponents, but also out smart and them. The game is only available on PC but its requirements are not very demanding which makes it accessible to most users with low end PCs.
- Valorant
Valorant is one of the most recent competitive shooter today, it’s still very much new but has made name for itself in the competitive scene. It takes the gunplay of CSGO and adds various characters with unique abilities to the mix. This gives it a unique playstyle as each character has a role to play in order for the teams to outplay their oppoenents rather than out aim them. Valorant like CSGO is also available on PC only and can be played on most low end PCs as well.
- Apex Legends
Our final game for the day is Apex Legends by respawn published by EA. Apex legends is first person character based battle royale, it features different legends with various abilities that help them win matches. The game is a sqaud based game with various game modes, it’s known for it’s fast paces play style and gunplay, with lots of cotents and maps. The game is crossplatform and available on PC, Xbox one, Xbox one seires X and playstation 4 & 5. It will also be coming to mobile soon.
Cassidy. I.E
Cybernaija 
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